According to conventional database architectures, a client application requests information from an application executing on an application server. The application server requests appropriate data from a database system, receives the data from the database system, provides any required additional processing, and provides the requested information to the client application.
Database systems may also execute various background jobs in addition to the foregoing. These jobs may include indexing, cache maintenance, pre-processing of data, etc. Execution of a background job may be triggered by a condition (e.g., cache usage greater than a threshold) and/or a schedule. Conventional database job scheduling systems and syntax (e.g., Unix cron) do not provide a desired level of scheduling control and specificity.